Bank of England - 12:00 GMT
On the first rate announcement of the day, due at 12:00 GMT, the Bank of England is likely to keep interest rate unchanged at a record-low of 0.5%. Investors’ polls coincide almost unanimously to this forecast, pointing out in addition that they expect no further increments to the BoE’s current scope of quantitative easing measures. The central bank initiated in March last year an unprecedented bond-purchase program amid the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s. Rumors circling the market suggest that the BoE may announce today a pause to its asset-buying program at the current level of 200 billion pounds, making the first move towards stabilizing its monetary policy.
European Central Bank - 12:45 GMT
The European Central Bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at a record low of 1.0% at its meeting in Frankfurt today. The announcement is scheduled to be released at 12:45 GMT and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will hold a press conference at 13:30 GMT. According to latest surveys all economists agree to the unchanged-rate prediction, shifting the attention from ECB’s announcement to the tone of Trichet’s speech 45 minutes later. Even though the economic data released since the last ECB meeting in January has mainly shown signs of improvement for the Euro-zone, President Trichet is expected to remain cautious on his outlook about the region’s economy, expressing one more time that “interest rates are appropriate ” for the time being.
The ECB is unlikely to announce further withdrawing of its emergency lending measures on worries over Greece’s fiscal situation and the risk of similar problems spreading to additional countries of the Euro-zone. The European Commission stated yesterday that further measures should be implemented by Greece to reduce public spending but supported the country’s fiscal consolidation plan to bring its budget deficit to below 3% of its GDP before the end of 2012.
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